Mahjong Competition Rules (Chinese Official)

2. Creating the wall

The 144 pieces, including flowers & seasons (or 136 without flowers & seasons) are mixed and then placed face down on the table. Each player then selects 36 tiles (or 34 without flowers & seasons) and arranges them face down in a row of 18 pieces (or 17 pieces without flowers & seasons) and 2 tiles high. Then, these rows are pushed forward to form a hollow square in the middle of the table.

Below is an example of an unbroken wall:

3. Breaking the wall

To determine which side of the wall to be the starting point, East throws the two dice and counts counterclockwise round the walls, beginning with himself as one (accordingly, numbers 1, 5, 9 indicate East, numbers 2, 6, 10 indicates South, numbers 3, 7, 11 indicates West and numbers 4, 8, 12 indicates North).

The player who sits at the starting point of the wall throws two dices again. Then, the numbers on both throws are added up. The player indicated then counts off along the tiles of his side of the wall, starting from the right end. Then, this player makes a break in the wall by pushing slightly the tiles to the left of the breaking point.

4. Dealing the tiles

East starts the deal by taking the first two stacks of the tiles (i.e., four tiles) from the left of the break, then each of the other three players pick two stacks of tiles in order South, West and North. This is repeated twice so that each player has 12 tiles. East then draws the next stack of two tiles (top tile of the 1st and 3rd stacks), and South, East and North in turn take one tile each. Thus the dealer has 14 tiles and the other three players each 13 tiles.

5. Replacements

If the dealt hand contains Flowers or Seasons, they are immediately melded
(placed face up above and to the side of the hand) and replaced with regular
tiles taken from the back end of the wall (East replaces first his extra tiles,
then South, West and North). Should a player draw further bonus tiles during this replacement procedure, he immediately takes supplement tiles for these, as well. If a player has a concealed Kong(s) in his hand he may declare it (them) at the same time he takes supplement tiles for Flowers and Seasons.